Donations push as tragedy widow dies

Ayra Wang

The family of Hsu Man-ming, who died when a crane collapsed at a construction site on Anderson Road in Sau Mau Ping, is accepting donations again after his cancer-stricken widow, who had said she felt uneasy receiving them, died last Wednesday.

Fay Siu Sin-man, chief executive of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, said yesterday that the widow, Jiang Hui, who lost her fight with metastatic breast cancer, is survived by two daughters, aged five and eight.

They have been made aware of their mother's passing and are relatively calm. Their grandfather and aunt are currently taking care of them.

"I guess their mother had already told them she was going to leave them one day," Siu said.

Hsu's widow stopped accepting donations before her death, but relatives had to act as her bank account was, with her passing, frozen and funds were needed to raise the girls in the short term.

"The family wanted to solve the problem on their own before but found the cost of paying for the two girls' education and living expenses exorbitant."

It might also take more than one year to get compensation funds and for the couple's assets to be freed up in court.

Siu said the relatives were not asking for constant support and would stop accepting donations once they got enough to meet urgent needs.

Hsu, an electrician, was killed with two other male colleagues when one of three tower cranes crushed several container offices in a fall last September 7.

Six workers were also injured.

The Labour Department initiated 67 prosecutions in March against the contractor, subcontractors and others, while the Buildings Department embarked on nine prosecutions last month .

Aggressive Construction Co, one of the contractors, was also found to be involved in three other industrial incidents causing five deaths in the past three years.

Its sister company, Aggressive Construction Engineering, will be struck off the registry of general building contractors on November 16 in the wake of a fatal building fatal incident in Yau Tong in December.

Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho warned on October 18 that the Buildings Department would not go easy on a license renewal application for Aggressive Construction Co following its expiry in April.

The company is currently engaged in five new private estate and commercial/residential projects that involve a total of 4,900 units. Of these, about 1,700 flats have been presold.

A 53-year-old worker fell into a deep hole at the Anderson Road construction site yesterday, when a wooden board he stepped on broke. He was diagnosed with fractures to his right sternum, pelvis and hand after being taken to hospital.